I have always been interested in knowing how to engage children in a conversation.. And suddenly there are some signs which are showing me a path…. The path of Story telling…
An unexplored arena for me… Would like to try and check possibilities.
One such exploration lead to this
The Invisible Piper’s Mysterious Tune
Homayun Taba
There are so many things about us we cannot do much about, right from our DNA structure, to who our parents are, the place of our birth, and the length of our lives. We refer to these, as ‘givens’ and the actual list can be very long. Albert Einstein, putting on his philosopher’s hat, goes a step further, saying that everything is determined by forces over which we have no control, and that we all dance to ‘a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible piper’.
Against this list sits another one, where the items listed out are those over which we do have influence and things on which we can have an impact. Depending on our energy, willingness and level of risk-taking, we are able to generate a whole lot of transformations within ourselves and in the environment around us.
One of those prayers found everywhere in stores and curio shops, practically upon every sort of material from glass, to cloth, to wood, is the one that asks the Almighty to grant us serenity to accept the unchangeable and courage to change the changeable. Up to here it has enough insight contained in it. But the crucial few words kept for the third line are ‘…and wisdom to know the difference’.
There are many situations in life in which we fail to exercise this discerning wisdom, from our careers, marriages, dealing with our neighbours, or simply in our setting priorities.
While changing the material world and one’s financial status are not impossible things to do, it takes a lifetime and many setbacks and knocks to realise that we cannot change others, and that we could have reserved a substantial amount of energy and resources if we had exercised the serenity to accept this.
Sufi master Bayazid Bistami offers some insight on this. When he was young he was a revolutionary, and all his prayers to God were to ask for energy to change the world. Approaching middle age, he realised that half his life had gone by without his truly changing a single soul. So he changed his prayer, now asking for power to change those he came in contact with – just family and close friends, and he would be content.
Then comes this wisdom-statement: “Now that i am an old man and my days are numbered, my one prayer is, ‘Lord, give me the grace to change myself’. If i had prayed for this right from the start i would not have wasted so much of my life.”
So the first prayer is about serenity, courage and wisdom and the second one is about energy, power and grace. And this is interesting because there is a vital link here between wisdom and grace. In one sense a true prayer is about asking God to grant us grace and by that, or in the light of it, we may acquire wisdom.
Wisdom is not always about knowing what to do, but more importantly, understanding about what not to do. Sometimes simply listening, not rushing to help or to interfere can be enormously wise.
We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking to realise that in life a lot depends on the willingness to face all that happens to us, and at the same time on learning the limits and extent to which we can overcome, and also what we must learn to make peace with.
Life is about choice. But to choose well, Kofi Annan says: “…you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
“A pause can be as significant as a step”
Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, an award-winning writer
“Character – the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life – is the source from which self respect springs.”
Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”
US author & Journalist
Anthem
by Leonard Cohen
The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government –
signs for all to see.
I can’t run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up
a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.
Ring the bells that still can ring …
You can add up the parts
but you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in.
“If someone does something negative to you, do not react but let it go… so that it remains their karma and does not become a part of yours…”
A beautiful scene… The blue sky being reflected in the ocean..
I have a dream – ABBA
Mamma Mia (Movie)
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.
We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.
And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.
A single summer grant me, great powers, and
A single autumn for fully ripened song
That, sated with the sweetness of my
Playing, my heart may more willingly die.
The soul that, living, did not attain its divine
Right cannot repose in the nether world.
But once what I am bent on, what is
Holy, my poetry, is accomplished:
Be welcome then, stillness of the shadows’ world!
I shall be satisfied, though my lyre will not
Accompany me down there. Once I
Lived like the gods, and more is not needed.
To the Fates by Friedrich Hölderlin
Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
Forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; Begin it well and serenely,
And with too high a spirit to be encumbered
with your old nonsense.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
